Themes in the Sequel: “One of the themes is about the responsibilities you face when being away from home — reflected by Sam going to college and by the fact that the Transformers themselves, are of course, far from Cybertron.”

This book is such a perfect send-up of the primary Heinlein themes, and such a jaundiced/humorous take on where the genre's thralldom to Heinlein has taken the field that it is practically a manifesto and declaration of independence for those who are critical of "traditional" SF.